BENJAMIN,
Judah Philip, lawyer, born inSt. Croix, W. I., 11 Aug., 1811; died in Paris, 8 May, 1884. His
parents were English Jews, who in 1811 sailed from England to settle in New
Orleans. The mouth of the Mississippi being blockaded by the British fleet,
they landed at St. Croix, where Mr. Benjamin was born. His boyhood was
passed in Wilmington,North Carolina, and in 1825 he entered Yale, but left college three
years later, without receiving a degree. He then studied law in New Orleans
in a notary's office, and was admitted to the bar 11 Dec., 1832.
For
some time he was engaged in teaching school, and in compiling a digest of
cases decided in the local courts. This, at first only intended for his
personal use, was subsequently enlarged and published as "A Digest
of Reported Decisions of the Supreme Court of the late Territory of Orleans
and of the Supreme Court of Louisiana" (1834). He soon rose to the
head of his profession, and in 1840 became a member of the firm of Slidell,
Benjarain & Conrad, having an extensive practice in planters' and cotton
merchants' cases. He was a Whig, and in 1845 a member of the convention held
to revise the constitution of the state, in which body he advocated the
addition of an article requiring the governor to be a citizen born in the
United States. In 1847 a U. S. commissioner was appointed to investigate the
Spanish land titles, under which the early settlers in California claimed
their property, and Benjamin was retained as counsel. On his return he was
admitted to practice in the U. S. Supreme Court, and for a time much of his
business was with that body at Washington.
In
1848 he became one of the presidential electors at large from Louisiana, and
was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1852, and again in 1857, but on the
secession of Louisiana he withdrew from the senate, with his colleague, John
Slidell, 4 Feb., 1861. During his senatorial career he had attained
preeminence in the southern wing of the democratic party. A sharp personal controversy
between himself and Jefferson Davis seemed likely to cause a duel, when the
latter apologized on the floor of the senate for the harsh language he had
used. He advocated the Kansas Nebraska bill of Mr. Douglas in 1854, but
afterward insisted that the principle of popular sovereignty had been
definitely set aside by the declaration of the supreme court in the Dred
Scott case, which, he contended, should be accepted as conclusive. His firm
advocacy of the legal claims of slavery brought from Senator Wade, of Ohio,
the remark that Mr. Benjamin was "a Hebrew with Egyptian
principles."
On
the formation of the provisional government of the confederate states, he
was appointed attorney general, and in August, 1861, was transferred to the
war department, succeeding L. P. Walker. Having been accused of incompetence
and neglect of duty by a committee of the confederate congress, he resigned
his office, but immediately became secretary of state, which place he held
until the final overthrow of the confederate government. He had the
reputation of being "the brains of the confederacy," and it
is said that Mr. Davis was in the habit of sending to hint all work that did
not obviously belong to the department of some other minister.
It
was his habit to begin work at 8 A. M., and he was often occupied at his
desk until 2 o'clock next morning. On the fall of the confederacy he fled
front Richmond with other members of the cabinet, and, on becoming separated
from the party, escaped from the coast of Florida to the Bahamas in an open
boat, thence going to Nassau, and in September, 1865, reached Liverpool. He
at once began the study of English law, and was entered as a student at
Lincoln's Inn, 13 Jan., 1866. In the following summer he was called to the
English bar, at the age of fifty-five. At first his success was slight, and
he was compelled to resort to journalism for a livelihood. In 1868 he
published "A Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property,"
which is now the authority on this subject in English law (3d ed., London,
1883).
MATHEW BRADY
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... Judah Philip Benjamin 1811 - 1884, Born of English parents, Judah P.
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Benjamin,
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... Benjamin, Judah Philip (1811 84), US lawyer, born on island of St. Thomas,
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BENJAMIN,
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